D&D 4E Tomb of Horrors (4E version) - anyone run this yet?

[Nytmare]

I'm just getting ready to run this and in reading ahead decided that I don't really like the game room all that much.

Anyone have any non-tomb favorite traps that would fit in well?

 

[the Jester]

The game room is more fun if you play up each table as having different stuff and let the pcs roleplay out their gaming, with skill checks to determine success.

But yeah, even so they are a little too vaguely described for me. I've only run the GoG part so far, but the game room is the only part of the module that I have been disappointed in, and even that was a pretty mild instance.

 

[ragingpeanuts]

Hi All,

I'm (finally) going to run the Garden of Graves within two weeks. I've been reading up on what to look out for in this thread, newbiedm's blog and a blog on the wotc forums. Do people have more tips for me? I'd like to make this as awesome as possible

This is what I got sofar:

In General about monster damage/hp/levels

• It's a mixed bag. Some of the monsters look like they're using MM3 numbers, but many do not, especially if they're direct from MM1 (in particular two monsters (the Aspects of Orcus and Demogorgon) in Chapter 4 come to mind).
• I'd still go over each monster and make sure that the damage levels are appropriate.
• In addition, some of the Solos certainly need tweaking, especially the gargoyle in Chapter 3. Specifically, they need a way to deal with stunning/dominate/daze attacks from stun-locking them.
• I wouldn't bother going through and doing calculations on eacn and every monster, but I would make a point of eyeballing any of the (potentially) largest offenders. (The solos, at least.) And if nothing else, be prepared to adjust on the fly.
• "I would give the solo's abilities to shake off stuns/dazed/dominated and such stuff"

The Ivy Heart encounter:

• "Drop the level of the plant monster in the final encounter. 5 levels above the party is a bit much to deal with."
• "The defences of the Ivy Heart are just a little too much for level 10-11 players, to the point where it would become more of a grind with so many failed rolls. So I lowered them and added more hitpoints. I did consider giving it vulnerability to fire, and almost did but I forgot it in the confusion and didn’t need to put it on anyway."

The Lamia (damsel in distress) encounter:

• "This encounter is horrible if your party doesn't have much in the way of Area or Blast powers."
• "I didn't like the lamia encounter either, the only ones who were able to be effective in any way were the wizard and the monk. Everyone else just sort of chipped away and the melee fighters kept getting poisoned. In the end, I fast forwarded after they were well bloodied as it was just getting tedious.
• And that resulted in them going out of their way to avoid encounters."

The sundial puzzle:

• "Prepare for th PCs to take a long time to figure out the sundial puzzle, and even then, focus too much on certain stanzas of the poem."
• "And in retrospect, I'd probably pick a monster other than mad wraiths for the sundial puzzle. A constant influx of incorporeal creatures with a dazing aura is likely to make for a very frustrating experience. Look for other incorporeal undead with less aggravating traits."

The switcheroo encounter (forgot the name)

• The fighting area when you're dealing with the copies of yourselves is a bit small...choke points made it very difficult for the monsters to coordinate

.

 

[Katana_Geldar]

The switcheroo is Death in the Dark, and I found that to be the best encounter.

Raging peanuts, I do a review of Garden of the Graves in my blog Level 1 GM.

I'm also currently running it for the second time and the players have worked out the solution to the torch puzzle without even seeing the sundial. It's just that they're overthinking, they say it's too simple a solution to go outside and check the time.

 

[ragingpeanuts]

Thanks all for replying.

Geldar, I had already found and read your blog, it was a valuable source of information!

Now that you're running it for the second time, are there things you would change?

I've already modified the mad wraiths in location 13 (replaced the wraiths with the monster vault versions, removed insubstantial, added that characters cannot spend a healing surge whilst in the aura, gave a triggered action that sucks a healing surge away from the pc that bloodies the wraith for the first time and restores the healing surge value to the wraith. The loss of a surge becomes a permanent curse after the first saving throw until removed with a remove affliction ritual. Also added to touch of chaos that it makes the pc very depressed, meaning they start crying for no reason until the end of the next turn. If they fail the saving throw, the depression becomes permanent until removed. Should provide some nice roleplaying

Btw, if I understand correctly, the correct time in location 13 cannot be properly deduced without the sundial, since it should be similar to the brazier, which revolves at a pace of 1 hour per minute (so 24 minutes is a whole day on the clock). Going outside and determining the correct time will (usually) not give the correct solution.

What's your experience with the planar rooms (location 21 to 23)? Are they workable as is? Or should they be tweaked?

Thanks.

gr.

Dyan

 

[Katana_Geldar]

For the angels, I took away their aura (mainly because I forgot about it and realised it too late) and took away their ability to move and not trigger AoO. They still could move half their speed as part of Reaping Scythe.

I haven't run the Shadowfell Planar room yet, but here are some general things I used:

* Make the portal behind the door black and opaque, identify it's a portal if they roll.
* To stop people being half-arsed, I had if you poke something through part of the way, it goes all the way in. You poke with a ten foot pole, the pole gets pulled. You stick your head in, you get pulled in.
* The portal goes to the same location for one round. Players can enter the same place together as long as they enter the same round. If one player leaves and comes back, roll again. If players keep entering and exiting, keep rolling.

I'm using the plane shifting rooms as a continuing theme, actually, you might see an earlier post in this thread I did in the "between section" I am running now where the room shifts around the players unless they are standing in the wrong spot, where they get stuck until the merry goround comes around again.

With the clock, I'll have to make it that it can't be solved without seeing the brazier. Maybe the thing is spinning so fast that if they stand in the right spot the shaow will spin around.

 

[Katana_Geldar]

Okay, I was all ready for the players to solve the puzzle and was just about to post their success....when I realised they wanted AM instead of PM.

*facepalm*

So they're fighting the Wraiths now. I reduced the aura to one square, but that's all the changes I made.

 

[Aegeri]

Have you thought about replacing the Mad Wraiths with a leveled up version - with more appropriate damage numbers - of the Wraiths from MV? They are substantially improved monsters and aren't the incredibly annoying grindy horrors of the original MM.

 

[Katana_Geldar]

Yes, I did consider it but these guys have just come out of the angels encounter and need a little leeway.

A little as one of the players said that the Wraiths were kryptonite to him.

 

[ragingpeanuts]

How did you find the build of the room in G7: Death in the dark? I heard complaints that the room was too cramped, but maybe it's a good thing cause the creatures should stay close to the players?

I left out the gameroom. Whilst I like the concept, it doesn't fit in my campaign - I seriously couldn't come up with a good reason to leave it in. I redressed the room with a bunch of sacrificed bodies which (after proper research) gives clues as to what the main antagonist is doing there.

Only two weeks left till we finally start playing the first part. I copied the garden of graves into Masterplan, level-adjusted it all and modified where recommended. Now I need to prepare the dungeontiles beforehand so I can just pull out the relevant rooms in a flash.